This blog is totally independent, unpaid and has only three major objectives.
The first is to inform readers of news and happenings in the e-Health domain, both here in Australia and world-wide.
The second is to provide commentary on e-Health in Australia and to foster improvement where I can.
The third is to encourage discussion of the matters raised in the blog so hopefully readers can get a balanced view of what is really happening and what successes are being achieved.

Friday, November 21, 2014

If Wearables For Health Tracking Are Going To Take Off This Might Be A Good One.

Daily activity tracker, multi-platform smartwatch, GPS sport watch, heart rate monitor, and fitness coach. The Microsoft Band can be whatever you want and that is the real power of the Band.

I've now spent nearly two weeks with the Microsoft Band — read my first impressions — and it has secured a place on my wrist for the foreseeable future.

As a guy who covers the mobile space, I use smartphones running every mobile operating system; the Microsoft Band is currently the only wearable to work across Windows Phone, iOS, and Android. Come to think of it, I will have to test it with my BlackBerry Passport and the Android Microsoft Health app since my Pebble works through this approach.

One specification that concerns me is the dust and splash resistance. I sweat a lot when I work out and I regularly run in the rain in Washington State. I hope that the Band doesn't fail during these typical conditions and that it's practically rainproof.

You won't find many wearables with this much tech crammed into it and I just hope that long-term usage doesn't end up causing failures like I have seen a number of times on advanced wristbands like the Jawbone UP.

Much the way that Apple shone a light on the entire smartwatch category by unveiling Watch in September, Microsoft unwrapped a new device aptly christened Band.

On the heels of Microsoft’s Band, Jawbone released two new options, the Up Move and UP3, while Fitbit pre-announced its Surge. Those stalwarts join an increasingly crowded space wherein the likes of household names such as Fitbit, LG, Nike and Sony reside alongside upstarts Amiigo, Misfit and Nabu.

What the bands all have in common: they track health data across varying points including calories, heart rate, movement, sleep and temperature. Each one, of course, is slight different than the others.

People are increasingly using mobile health technology to improve their well-being, according to new Gallup research.

About half of smartphone users have downloaded at least one app that is meant to support healthy living, and 19 percent of all adults have downloaded and routinely used at least one such app. This means that one out of every five people are regularly using mobile technology to improve their chances of a life well-lived. Among full-time workers, this percentage climbs to 23 percent, according to the researchers.

Out of 11 popular types of apps on the market, usage varies. Across all adults, the most common use is for calorie counting: 18 percent report having downloaded an app for that purpose. Of these, one-third -—or 6 percent—routinely use the app. Health recipes and food/exercise diaries are the next most common type of apps used.